Sorry Ass U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock Has A Problem With Former Homeland Security Official’s Conviction For Having Wetback Maid

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – A furious federal judge said he may toss out the conviction of an ex-Homeland Security honcho caught hiring an illegal alien, after he berated prosecutors yesterday for their “aggressive and overreaching” handling of the case.

“It was a cleaning lady,” U.S. District court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock said of the Brazilian maid hired by Lorraine Henderson. “A cleaning lady. Not Al Capone.”

What started as the sentencing of the 52-year-old former federal port chief quickly was derailed by Woodlock, who threw prosecutors hypothetical questions about the law and lectured them on government tyranny.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Freniere appeared to wilt under the third-degree lashing. Then her boss, Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil, stepped in.

Woodlock delayed sentencing Henderson, who faces a maximum of five years in jail for one count of encouraging or inducing an illegal alien. He said he’s mulling a motion of acquittal.

Prosecutors recommended Henderson be sentenced to 36 months’ probation, eight months of it under home confinement or at a halfway house. Defense lawyer Francis DiMento requested a year probation with minimum supervision.

Woodlock conceded that Henderson erred greatly, but he struggled over whether she should be saddled with a felony conviction, when she could have been charged with a misdemeanor.

Henderson is suspended from her job with U.S. Customs and Border Protection keeping illegals from entering the country through Logan International Airport. She now works at a pet store.

“It was hapless hypocrisy and she shouldn’t have done it,” Woodlock said. “She was wrong, but a felony? It couldn’t even be a misdemeanor? A person’s life has been crushed as a result of prosecutorial discretion.”